Daughter Tells Of Threats, Violence Of Physician Father

June 2, 1988|By LARRY KELLER, Staff Writer

Scarcely looking at her parents, Raniah Abdulsamad testified in a Broward courtroom on Wednesday about how she and her husband have lived in hiding and in fear of her mother and father for nearly two years.

In January, the parents, Saud and Ghada Tarawneh, found them living in Tamarac. Police say the Tarawnehs then attempted to avenge their daughter`s elopement and restore the family honor by trying to arrange the contract dismemberment killings of their son-in-law, his sister and his mother.

Her parents, Abdulsamad testified, are ``dangerous.``

The Tarawnehs are charged with four counts each of conspiracy and solicitation to commit first-degree murder. They face a maximum of 30 years in state prison on each count if convicted.

The Tarawnehs were simply trying to reconcile their family, said defense attorney Donald Spadaro in opening arguments. And they were entrapped into a murder plot by a private investigator working with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, he said.

The defense also contends that Saud Tarawneh, who is a gynecologist, has long had a drinking problem that was exacerbated in 1986 when he was bilked out of about $300,000, contributing to his erractic behavior regarding his daughter`s marriage.

Dr. Tarawneh was born in Jordan, his wife in Syria. Since 1967 they have lived off and on in the United States, most recently in Toledo, Ohio. They are U.S. citizens, as is their daughter, who was born in Rhode Island and was graduated from a Toledo high school.

Abdulsamad, 19, eloped and married her cousin, Mouataz Abdulsamad, in August 1986 over the vehement objections of her father. What followed is a tale of international intrigue, cultural idiosyncracies and blood lust, according to the state.

In 2 1/2 hours of testimony, Abdulsamad -- articulate, soft-spoken and poised -- described how her father ruled his home with an iron hand, often beating her mother, three younger brothers and herself.

Her parents objected to her marriage not because of her age -- 17 -- or that she was in love with her cousin, Abdulsamad said. They simply wanted her to marry somebody of distinction who would bring them prestige, she said.

After she married Mouataz, her parents repeatedly threatened her on the telephone, Abdulsamad said. An uncle armed with a gun came after her, and when that failed, her father had her arrested on a phony charge that she had stolen money and jewelry from the family`s home in Jordan, she said. She said she believed her parents hoped she would then be extradited to Jordan to face the charge.

Eventually, Raniah and Mouataz went to the United States, moving to South Florida in May 1987. Both got jobs working in Broward banks. In August, Raniah gave birth to a baby boy.

Meanwhile, the Tarawnehs had returned to Toledo and hired Fort Lauderdale private eye Ronald Petrillo to find the Abdulsamads. When their daughter refused to return with her parents to Toledo, according to Petrillo, Saud Tarawneh asked him to arrange the killing of his son-in-law for a fee.

Petrillo contacted FDLE and agreed to tape telephone and face-to-face conversations with the gynecologist. Nine conversations were recorded.

In February, the Tarawnehs told him they wanted not only their son-in-law killed, but also his sister and his mother, Petrillo said. They specified that bodily organs of Mouataz Abdulsamad and his sister, as well as the young man`s right middle finger and his mother`s tongue, were to be removed and stored in jars of formaldehyde, Petrillo said. Mouataz`s mother is Ghada Tarawneh`s sister.

And the Tarawnehs requested that color pictures be taken of the corpses, Petrillo said.

Saud said ``the fact that he was not able to control his daughter was a blow to his ego and his self-respect in the eyes of his family,`` said Petrillo in a deposition. ``(He) told me that unless or until he could have this accomplished to show his family back home, that he was in fact man enough to control his own family, that he would never have face with his family.``

Defense attorney Spadaro contends that it was Petrillo, not Saud Tarawneh, who initiated talk of contract killings and kept the plot alive. And he contends that the Tarawnehs were only trying to rescue their daughter from what they believed was an unhappy marriage.

Early last year, Raniah telephoned a former boyfriend in Toledo, said she was pregnant and unhappy, and asked if she could live with him, Spadaro said. The ex-boyfriend relayed this information to her parents, he said, fanning their fears that their daughter was in a bind.

This coupled with a desire to patch up old wounds from the elopement led to their contacting a private eye to arrange a reconciliation, he said.

``If they had wanted a true reconciliation, they would have just come and knocked on the door,`` said their daughter.

After she testified, Abdulsamad -- whose current address is being kept secret -- met down a courthouse hallway with her three brothers. A half-dozen bailiffs and court deputies provided security nearby.